Talking Point: What Did You Think Of The Xbox Kinect?

It's a great shame that MS buried it 😓

It was a great idea, but the timing was off. They just missed the peak of the motion control craze and it was just ahead of the AR/VR era. It makes me wonder what it would look like if they were to try something camera related now with better tech.

There was a moment early in Xbox One when cable TV was still a thing and Netflix was getting huge where the all-in-one box was actually awesome as a consumer. The voice commands were great for switching seamlessly from each.

The crux of these devices is the support for it requires development taken away from normal gaming which most people don't want. This is kind of why psvr2 is failing.

I only played Kinect Sports at a friend's and I had fun. I have never owned it.

In all honesty I had fun with it and still on occasion, maybe once a year, it will get busted out at family get togethers. Although like Widley85 said it was a bit limited and I feel like that limited the games it was good with. I feel while the tech in the wii was more primitive more could and was done with it. I still wish I could get that IR pointing on modern consoles for Rail shooters and the ocassional fps gameplay. Gyro doesn't do it for me tbh.

@pepsilover2008 The Wii Remote and nunchuk are better than the joy-cons, I agree.

The biggest problems with the Kinect were how much space it needed and how easily it uncalibrated. But when it worked, it was fun.

I didn’t care for it.

What the dickens went wrong with Rare that they made shovelware for the thing? Talk about a dip in form. It was Grabbed by the Ghoulies wasn’t it?

Both were a mixed bag. The games for Kinect on the x360 were fun, were very short. The Kinect did require to be properly set up, but you only had to do this once, unlike the Wii which forced you to setup the Wii remotes every time you played a Wii game. On the X1 Kinect had potential but forcing integration into the dashboard was a mistake. Kinect 2.0 was basically dead at launch since MS didn't line up a collection of games at launch. If Kinect used some form of handheld sensor it would of worked much better.

@pepsilover2008 I'd love for the Switch successor to get a sensor bar so we can get more Railshooters and motion control games.

I was younger the kids were kids then and living at home and it was great to have as an alternative to the normal gaming stuff.
Was good family fun, but not as a single big game play type of device.

It was really cool but their director's all-in dedication to it being controller-less gameplay really limited what it could have been. (He's was always selling that point — it always felt like to me that he knew deep down it wasn't the right choice but he had convinced so many execs that that was the way to go that he couldn't back out) But I still have fun with some of the games with my kids which speaks to the inherent potential it did have.

I voted terrible because the kinect forced upon Xbox one at release and the always online bull ruined Xbox for that generation before it even started and it didn't really work that well either

@Banjo- Kinect Sport Rival He was really great and fun 👌

I always remember the articles telling me how hi-tech it was , so why did my avatar look like it had parkinsons, awful piece of kit

@Peete Yeah, I had a lot of fun, also because I was getting used to the controls. Good times.

Shoutout to Dance Central for all the good times in college 🫡

Did you not get a One straight away, @Widey85? The One was initially only available with the Kinect.

I pre-ordered the One, and it came with the Kinect. I still have both the console and the Kinect. The One got hammered, but the Kinect never came out of the box, not once..! I didn't want it, but had no choice in the matter. Selling the One with a Kinect, with no other options, was a poor idea, particularly looking back on it now...

I preordered one too. I quite enjoyed what I played. Kinect Sports and Rivals were easily the highlights. Still got a few games I never even took the wrapper off though. Haha.

Still to this day, we have fun with a bowling night. Or a fruit ninja night. Great for playing with younger kids. On my own I play Kung fu. So awesome. I love the kinect, I have all the games. Except air guitar kinect. Just waiting for a sale on that one.

Also just dance with joycons or a cell phone feels wrong. I wish they continued support for these games.

i didn't buy an xbox one till they took that thing out.

The beginning of the end.

"Xbox On" never worked for me. That undermined the entire experience.

Xbox Fitness was also one of the best home workout services, even compared to those that exist today. And the Reddit community that was built around it was second to none.

Could be argued that it was the most useless peripheral ever lol

With my 360 I basically only play Kinect games. Would love to play some motion games on my series x.

Never bought one or saw the appeal.

I absolutely loved it as an exercise device. I have not played an exercise game as fun or strenuous as Dance Central. The full body tracking for the game was amazing. Games such as Ring Fit or anything that requires me to hold a controller just do not feel the same. The closest I have gotten to full body workouts are games such as Beat Saber, samba De Amigo VR, and Synth Riders on the Oculus Quest 3... and even those don't have the full body tracking that get my legs involved in any meaningful way. I would love to see a device like the Kinect, with its dead simple setup, come back into the gaming world.

I always thought it was spying on me 😂

It was awesome as an optional accessory on 360 but making it mandatory for X1 was a poor decision.

@HunterRose Playing Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort and Wii Fit is a bit cumbersome when they require you to keep the Wii Remote in your hand or in your pocket and it never registers the right pace. Wii Fit Plus has some immersive mini games because your whole body is free, so I agree, that's the best thing about Kinect, that you just use your body.

Looking back it was clearly way ahead of its time with some really great experiences and it's still amazing to play today. I still own both Kinect versions and consoles, xbox 360 and OneX.

great idea , executed well but then it ruined xbox

I remember a few of my buddies had it when I was a kid and I always wanted to play it and they never did. Then when we finally played it I realized how much lag there was with it, plus a lot of the controls were finicky. It was really cool but more of a novelty, I can see why they never wanted to play it.

The original was an interesting little device and fun for a bit but I cannot begin to understand why Microsoft made it mandatory with the Xbox One. I still bought an Xbox One because of Dead Rising 3 but I only used Kinect when absolutely necessary. Best part of Kinect was IGN’s Podcast Unlocked messing with audience members by saying “Xbox, On” in the middle of a show.

Great idea in theory but poorly executed and the tech just wasn't there.

I still have the 360 hooked up because Kinect Sports plays and looks better than similar titles on Wii, Switch and even Quest 3. I have sports titles on all three but keep coming back to Kinect sports 1 and 2. I'm sure the 360 will die eventually!

I still enjoy Kinect games. Got lots of play out of Sports/Rivals, Dance Central and more. I do wish either version was back compat.

Xbox Fitness was awesome, as others have pointed out.

I liked it, I bought it almost Day 1 on the 360 back then and had a great time. Some really enjoyable games were made. And not only Dance Central(which is still the best dancing game) and Kinect Sports.
I also enjoyed Rise of Nightmares, Sonic Free Riders or Motion Sports Adrenaline. It wasn't flawless but kinda good.
The XBox One Kinect sucked. Too less games and nothing special on it.

@HunterRose I'm just learning that that New Samba de Amigo Switch title also has a VR version. 😯 That's really cool.

It was rough. But I enjoyed Fable the Journey despite the inconsistent controls.

Child of eden. Nuff said.

I only have a Xbox One Kinect so Kinect Rivals and not really used it with Ryse or Forza Motorsport 5, I don't have the Ubisoft Xbox One Kinect game, never used Just Dance with it either as I don't own Just Dance games.

I care about other gimmicks/hardware of Kinect up to the point it was for tracking people for medical purposes or other things it made sense to help people exercise, get used to their motor functions or something but for games yeah dancing or self inserts help most or hand gestures then too much body movement and limits for hardcore games.

I think Yoostar 2 is cool, self insert is great.

Dancing games too. No idea how Fable or others work but intrigued.

Steel Battalion makes sense then the big controller even if that game is worth using that for it.

Child of Eden too which as Rez was fun when not.

Some games make sense.

Will get a 360 Kinect and games someday. If they made Xcbox One Kinect backwards compatible I'd pull it out but like with OG Xbox titles on Xbox One I have to be selective what I buy as I don't own an OG Xbox, while I do a 360. So sure the big 360 list of supported OG Xbox titles and even less on Xbox One/Series consoles but I still find titles I can't. Hence why the ABK back compat would be great but nope PS2 versions instead of COD titles or others Xbox only I can't.

Thought for Kinect Rivals it was fair. I used it once but it was a good once. I'll try again I just have to have space to put it in or a reason to want to use it for a for titles.

Am using Playlink titles apps for PS4 more recently. Have considered Buzz controllers. Enjoy Impulse Triggers on Xbox One games that do support them. Fine with Xbox doing gimmicks it's just they don't really do them.

Bought up many PS Move/Eye Toy/Wii games to try out, some are my favourites, others are just fair test games and not much but ok enough titles.

I love it and Missing forever. i Still have the X360 and Xbox One versions......
Sport games are awesome

I wasn't in the console space at that time, but while I know it didn't have the best reputation for quality, and "Hardcore gamers" didn't like it the Kinect sold like gangbusters, and it's not surprising they kept it going for the XBone.